American LeMans-- Simon Pagenaud from deFerran Racing is on overall pole with the new Acura ARX02b LMP 1 prototype--101.606 miles an hour around the 1.8 mile course. Third overall and first of the LMP2 cars--Luis Diaz 99.420. The diesel Peugeots and Audis aren't here...so the prototype field is a bit sparse. That said, Pagenaud didn't have a lot of time to get into the Wirth Racing simulator for the ARX02b...so he looked around on the net, and downloaded some games and simulations of the St. Pete circuit, a lot like Denny Hamlin at Pocono in 2006.
IndyCar--Last year's winner, Graham Rahal, set the standard for the IndyCars--his practice run 102.3 miles an hour. The IndyCars sound a bit different in 2009, thanks to a rule tweak that put a different exhaust system on the Honda engines. Also...the ethanol that they use is Brazilian branded, thanks to the demise of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, who sponsored the fueling in 2008 Twenty-two IndyCars took practice times this afternoon. The series will also have a different tire rule for road and street courses for 2009. Firestone, at the behest of the IRL, developed a two tire scheme--primary (black sidewall) and alternate (red sidewall). The rules state that each team use one set of unused ("sticker") primary tires and one set of unused ("sticker") alternate tires for at minimum two laps of green flag racing. The alternate tires share the same construction as the primaries, but have a stickier tread. Firestone Racing Boss Al Speyer suggested that teams who bolt on the red-label Firehawks could gain a half to a full second of speed over use of the primary tires. This introduces some strategies in the management of the tires. But wait, there's more: The teams must declare one hour after final qualifying, what compound (primary or alternate) their car or cars will use at the green flag. If the race is declared a wet race--the rule is suspended.
Danica Patrick still draws crowds in the paddock, not quite like AJ Foyt did in his heyday...we had to squeeze up against the ropes to snap this shot of the crew working on the Motorola car.
We'll rejoin you from the downtown circuit tomorrow. In the meantime, (and I hope you will pardon this point of personal privilege) please keep my neighbors in Binghamton, NY in your thoughts and prayers, as they try to make sense of what happened on Front Street today.
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